PRISON HEALTH CARE ISSUE IGNORED BY OBAMA - MEDIA MOST CONCERNED WITH RELEASE OF VIOLENT OFFENDERS

The United States is the most incarcerating country in the world: 1 in 100 people are in our prisons.  People are all worked up about whether or not undocumented residents should get health care. People are all worked up about the release of bad guys back onto our streets. People are all worked up about the public option health care idea. But what about the free health care (or lack thereof) that our incarcerated residents receive? The amount of money that goes into our prison industry is shocking. Why the lack of discussion about this issue that all tax payers should be concerned with?

In 2004, California spent $1 billion in health care for its prison inmates and that amount still wasn't enough to provide proper care. Article here. "Twenty percent of the physicians that work at CDC have either a bad mark on their record or a series of malpractice lawsuits -- a figure that is four to five times higher than the general population of physicians in California."

In August 2009, a federal judge panel ordered the California prison system to reduce its inmate population of 150,000 by 40,000 — roughly 27 percent — within two years. Article here. Health care has been so bad that at least one "unnecessary" death is caused per week. 

Then, on September 3, 2009, the judicial panel denied a motion by the Schwarzenegger administration that sought to delay an order requiring California to reduce its prison population. The panel gave them a September 18 deadline to provide a plan for reducing the population.  “This court has been more than patient with the state and its officials” in waiting for California to reduce overcrowding to improve medical and mental health care for inmates, the judges said in a five-page ruling. “We are persuaded that it is now in the best interests of all concerned to act as swiftly as possible.” Article here.

Last year Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-California) allegedly sought and received approximately  $7.8 billion to build $53,000 prison cells in California. $7.8 billion!!!!!! Including this statement from her website : For the 2008 FY Budget: 

Mendota Prison - I am pleased that the President and the Justice Department have responded to my repeated reque sts for the federal government to finish construction of the 1,280 -bed federal prison in Mendota, California.  This partially-completed prison has been sitting half-finished for several years, but the President’s promise of $115 million in his budget should finally allow this facility to be completed and start receiving inmates by 2010 – bringing needed jobs to this area of California and adding needed medium-security bed space for male inmates sentenced for federal crimes.  That equates to approximately $90,000 of taxpayer money going to each bed for “medium” security inmates.  And keep in mind, money has already been put into this prison.  The state is seeking an ADDITIONAL $115 million.  

So where is all the money going? The state continues to get billions of dollars for the prison industry and yet people continue to die in prison due to terrible health care. The prisons clearly continue to be over-crowded and now, the state is being forced to reduce the population. 

Here's the problem: we punish everyone by incarceration; the inmates receive "free" health care from our taxes. Also, think about this: those who are in custody and have received shabby "free" health care may also win a civil suit against the state. There goes more taxpayer money to the inmate!

Maybe if we did not incarcerate non-violent criminals, we would not have to worry about over-crowding in the first place. But instead, we are so caught up with more and more money going to prison beds and prison expansion, we don't pay attention to the lingering effects. 

I'm just wondering when Obama and the mainstream media are going to address this issue. Because as we put criminals in jail and throw away the key, we are also throwing away our money. 

www.xpunged.com and www.tamaraholder.com